1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improvement in mailing machines and more particularly to an envelope deskewing device for a mailing machine which prints postage indicia in a predetermined location on envelopes.
Mailing machines are well known in the prior art and are found in post offices and in mailrooms of companies and business offices the world over. Typically, a mailing machine comprises a feed base having an elongate deck which presents a flat surface over which envelopes can be fed one at a time, and a feeding mechanism for feeding the envelopes. Mailing machines may be either hand fed, in which case an operator places a single envelope on the feed deck and slides it into engagement with the feeding mechanism, or automotive wherein envelopes are fed seriatim from a stack held in a suitable hopper and transferred across the feed deck.
The mailing machine also includes a postage meter which, with a few exceptions is removably connected to the feed base. The postage meter, as is well known, is basically a printing device which prints a particular type of postage indicia on the envelope adjacent the upper right hand corner, the printed postage indicia serving in lieu of a postage stamp as proof of payment of the postage charge. Typically, the postage meter has settable printing wheels to facilitate selecting different amounts of postage and dates to be printed, and there are suitable mechanical or electronic means for setting the printing wheels and for keeping track of the amount of postage printed for accounting and security purposes.
The present invention is particularly useful in the hand fed type of mailing machine, but may also be utilized to advantage in automatic mailing machines. In either case, envelopes must be fed through the mailing machine in proper alignment with the printing drum of the postage meter in order to have the postage indicia printed in a precise location and orientation on the envelopes. It is important that the postage indicia be printed in a precise location and orientation in order to assure that there is no loss of any portion of the postage indicia, which would violate federal regulations covering metered mail, and also to assure that there is no loss of the customer's advertising slogan and/or design which may be printed by the meter which would offend the customer. These malfunctions are made possible by the typical mailing machine design. The postage meter is triggered by the lead edge of the envelope striking a trip actuator or energizing an electronic receiving device to signal the arrival of the envelope at a known location. If the envelope is moving through the mailing machine in a skewed relationship, the portion of the envelope which triggers the operation of the postage meter will not be in the proper location when it engages the triggering device, thereby actuating the postage meter either too soon or too late.
Another reason for the importance of feeding the envelopes through the mailing machine in proper registration with the printing drum is to avoid damage to the envelope in other portions of the mailing machine. Typically, mailing machines are provided with a moistening and sealing device upstream from the printing drum of the postage meter. If an envelope is fed through the moistening component in other than a substantially properly aligned orientation, there is a high probability that the flap of the envelope will catch and tear on the moistening component and the envelope will not be properly sealed. It is also quite possible that the tearing of the flap could cause the envelope to jam in the mailing machine and cause a complete malfunction.
After recognizing the importance of providing a deskewing device in a mail handling machine for any one or more of the reasons mentioned above, it was discovered that there is a limit to the amount of misregistration with which an envelope can be placed on the feed table and still have it become properly registered by the deskewing device before the envelope reaches the printing drum of the postage meter. It was found, in using the present invention, that an envelope would almost always be properly aligned with the normal direction of fed if it was placed on the feed deck at an angle of nor more than 10.degree. to the normal direction of feed. Mailing machines are typically provided with a registration guide which extends along the feed deck and is parallel to the normal direction of feed of the envelope, and the maximum angle at which an envelope can be placed on the feed deck and still be properly registered by the deskewing device is called the acceptance angle, which in this case of the present invention is about 10.degree. to 12.degree.. While envelopes placed on the feed deck at an angle of more than 12.degree. may be properly aligned, the probability of this is low, and is therefore not considered acceptable. Therefore, the present invention provides a device for preventing an envelope from being fed through the mailing machine which is placed on the feed deck at an angle to the registration guide which is in excess of the acceptance angle.
2. Prior Art
The present invention is a device for deskewing envelopes as they are fed into a mailing so that they will be properly aligned with a registration guide prior to passing through the postage printing device of a postage meter which forms part of the mailing machine, and includes a device for preventing envelopes from being fed which are put into the mailing machine at greater than a predetermined angle to the registration guide.
The closest prior art presently known relates primarily to document alignment devices for causing a document to be properly aligned with a registration guide before being fed into a copying machine although a few other patents relating to edge registration of documents are known. All of these patents are listed and discussed in the Information Disclosure Statement filed concurrently with this application and made a part hereof.